Perseus and the Deep Sea Crusade

The waves are so rough that the ship is almost lost.

The ocean is unforgiving, the crew has already perished or left to go on their own.

I look out at the sea and swear I see a woman’s face in the clouds. I rub my eyes and she is gone.

A cloud of red crosses my vision and I turn to see an axe swing through steel and flesh. The crewman with an axe is covered in blood. His face twisted into a snarl, his eyes wild and crazed, his teeth stained from chewing the flesh of men. He raises the blade again and I catch his arm.

“What has happened to you?” I ask him softly. “Is it not enough for you to have vanquished us all? Are you so hungry that you must devour your own kind? What could possibly fill this hole inside your heart?”

He pulls away from me with a growl and leaps into the water without hesitation. I hear him splashing around in the water near the ship, then nothing but a splash of water as he falls overboard. He will drown, but perhaps he doesn't care if he dies or not anymore. My ship is sinking, our supplies are running low, we may all be doomed anyway. The storm will take us down before we can reach land again, if we make it that long at all.

The ship suddenly drops very low in the water, as if it's been hit by something heavy beneath us. The top deck tilts deeper into the sea as it starts to sink faster now that it's been compromised by whatever large object bumped into it just below the surface of the water. We're going down fast now, and there isn't much time left for anyone to abandon ship and jump overboard before it's too late to escape unharmed from this disaster. All hands abandon ship! Abandon ship! This is no time for panic! Keep calm! Keep calm! There’s only time for action! Do not lose yourself; do not lose control! Whatever you do, keep your wits about you!

I try to steer my sturdy vessel back into open water but fail miserably as wave after wave crashes over me and my crewmen who are trying just as hard as I am to avoid being dashed against the rocks below us or pulled under by a vicious current which is determined to drag us all under its dark waves where we will surely drown when our lungs fill up with salty seawater or our heads are crushed like eggs against rocks beneath us by angry waves which would hardly call themselves waves if they wanted to be called anything else other than monsters prowling beneath the surface threatening to drag everyone they can get their claws around down with them into their dark abyss full of blackness and nightmares where even those who dream fearfully would fear to walk alone at night after hearing what lies beneath them at every step they take whether they ever knew there were things lurking beneath them or not does not matter because seconds after finding out there may be things lurking beneath them they find themselves waking up in cold sweats terrified by what they thought was only a nightmare only moments before turns out to be very real after all. It doesn't matter how scared someone gets when facing something which threatens their lives underwater; no one can survive very long submerged underwater without fresh air in their lungs and oxygen flowing through their bloodstreams until they drown from lack of oxygen flow or suffer brain damage from lack of oxygen flow resulting in death once brain damage occurs for whatever reason whether drowning caused it or whatever else caused it does not matter because either way death results whenever brain damage occurs unless someone performs CPR quickly enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough after someone goes unconscious due to lack of oxygen flow otherwise death results whenever brain damage occurs if no one performs CPR soon enough...